As you probably all know by now, my name’s Dara, (I used to direct in LA in 2006-2007, including at NOTE and the Met) and these days, I direct a Baltimore-based group of actors and musicians called The Parallel Octave (http://paralleloctave.wordpress.com). We work on choruses — poems read and sung by multiple voices, and performed to improvised music. I would like to try to have a parallel Parallel Octave session in Los Angeles.

We will spend some time discussing the text, experimenting with techniques, and then make an improvised recording of a small part of the text. ***Please note: you must be comfortable with having this session recorded and the results shared online in order to attend.***

Nothing about what we do is set: not the order or number of voices or the style of music. Depending on the group of artists who comes together for each session, the result is different. You can hear some of those results at http://paralleloctave.wordpress.com.